over any of the catchy radio songs.

Every band I formed appeared to wander

drunk through bad weather while I waited

in a basement for practice to begin.

When night imposed silence I left town

or wandered snowfields where each streetlight

resembled a moon held up by one of God's

wooden fingers. The sun rose unexpectedly each day

above I roof where I sat waiting,

among others like myself, for something

utterly different to happen.

David's Commentary

I first drafted “Homeschooling” in a workshop I led for New York Writer’s Coalition, which focused on creating a safe and supportive space to generate new, often risky material. The workshop members and I would write in twenty-minute bursts, then read our work aloud before we had time for second thoughts. Once I had that first draft, which I think of as a structural sketch with a few major images, I began working over the less-interesting language, aiming to enact the disorientation of a drug-filled adolescence without ever allowing the reader’s attention to wander. Breaking the poem into couplets served as a way to manipulate the sentences more deliberately while also taking control of the poem’s visual form. In moving toward the final draft I sought feedback from a number of writers I trust, and stripped away unnecessarily confusing images while attempting to preserve the poem’s sense of mystery. I also heightened the tension by breaking lines more sharply against the syntax of the sentences. When variation in line-length made the couplets awkwardly uneven, I condensed them into a single stanza to maintain the appearance of fluidity.

David Winter wrote the chapbook Safe House (Thrush Press, 2013). His poetry has also appeared or is forthcoming in Atlanta Review, Four Way Review, Meridian, Union Station, and Forklift, Ohio, among others. He recently completed his MFA at The Ohio State University, where he taught creative writing and composition, and served as a poetry editor for The Journal. You can visit him at davidwinter (dot) net.